SII fixes Covishield's price at Rs. 600 for private hospitals
Serum Institute of India (SII) will sell Covishield at Rs. 400 per shot to states and at Rs. 600 to private hospitals, the Pune-based vaccine manufacturer said today. The company will charge the same from the Centre, once its current purchase order with the government (at Rs. 150/shot) is exhausted. SII said that Covishield is still cheaper than foreign vaccines. Here are more details.
50% of capacity reserved for Centre's vaccination program
In a press release, SII underlined, "Going ahead, 50% of our capacities will be served to the Government of India's vaccination program, and the remaining 50% of the capacity will be for the state governments and private hospitals." The company's decision came two days after the Centre revealed that all those above 18 years will be eligible for vaccination from May 1.
SII said it can't meet demands of corporate entities separately
The company also added that it could struggle to supply doses to corporate entities separately. "We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines through the state facilitated machinery and private health systems. Post four-five months, the vaccines will be made available in retail and free trade," the statement read. SII assured people that it is doing its best to help.
Here is the complete statement
Last evening, PM Modi hailed world's largest vaccination drive
During his televised address to the nation yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the scientific community for developing a vaccine in record time. "It's because of such efforts that India launched the world's largest vaccination drive with two Made In India vaccines," he said. The vaccination drive had started on January 16 and currently covers only corona warriors and those above 45.
Government gave Rs. 4,500 crore advance to vaccine manufacturers
On Monday, PM Modi's government gave an advance of over Rs. 4,500 crore to SII and Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabad-based company which developed COVAXIN, to boost vaccine production. "We are ramping up immediately and the big ramp-up will happen post-July. But even between now and July we will ramp up 15 to 20% in our monthly capacities," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla told NDTV.
India recorded another highest single-day spike
As the nation battles a devastating second wave of coronavirus, the Centre has paused the "vaccine maitri" program, under which it provided doses to needy countries. The focus has now shifted to domestic demands. Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, India reported 2.95 lakh new coronavirus infections, the biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began. A record 2,023 patients died in the same period.
